Business incubator thriving in old drug factory

By SIMON HENDERY

On a South Auckland industrial site which used to be a drugs factory, they are brewing up something completely different these days - budding entrepreneurs.

The old Glaxo Wellcome factory on Great South Rd, Otahuhu, is now home to South Markets, a business incubation programme run by the Pacific Business Trust.

The trust bought the 2.9ha site two years ago and has set about turning its storerooms, fridges and office blocks into a hive of business premises.

The site is a "daycare centre" for start-up businesses, said the trust's chief executive, Frances Hartnell.

Tenants are charged market rents, but the trust offers an advice service to steer them through some of the common pitfalls of starting a new business.

The entrepreneurs are given guidance on:

* Pricing products for the market.

* Aiming marketing and advertising where it will be most successful.

* Motivation and focus - ensuring they "stick to their knitting."

* Setting up appropriate financial systems.

"We can support them and nurture them for a certain length of time," said Frances Hartnell.

"What we do is like babysitting - let them go, but when they need help offer them mentoring."

The trust's stated goal is to promote the self-sufficiency of Pacific people by supporting business activity and ownership.

"A lot of people think we're only here for Pacific Island people and we are to some extent," said Frances Hartnell. "But when you actually get into business, people partner up with whom they need to partner up. It's based on skills, not ethnicity."

The trust has a contract to provide business services for the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, and with business incubation increasingly favoured as a way of improving economic activity, it has applied for a slice of a $2.25 million incubation fund administered by the Ministry for Economic Development.

Businesses based at South Markets include a cyber cafe, retailers, administrative service providers, and an art gallery promoting the works of South Auckland artists.

The trust is particularly keen to foster creative ventures.

"It seems to be those [creative] people who are coming asking us for assistance - to provide the business glue for their technical expertise," Frances Hartnell said.

The trust has worked at building relationships with established creative businesses in the hope they will share their skills with the newcomers.

"They tend to listen to their own, as opposed to people like us sitting in an office. We'll use any ways and means to get them a bit more focused."

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